Ravensquawk
Well-Flown Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
- Messages
- 319
This elusive short story I read in English, in anthology or collection, almost certainly before about 2002.
It could easily be older than that. Possibly even classic or Golden Age.
The plot bits I remember are a man staying at a remote rural hotel, vacation lodging, a rustic lodge, maybe a boarding house. It may or may not be told in the first person, but the story does unfold as he doesn't know anything at first, and develops as he sees changes and learns more.
So, first person or not, it develops from his point of view.
He looks out the window of his room, which I recall as an upper story. He sees large, folded umbrellas on the country hillside. They may be the size of restaurant table umbrellas.
Later, he sees that they moved. Closer to the building, of course.
Apparently, no one else knows anything about them. It may even be that no one else believes him.
Other guests of the lodge eventually go missing. He sees the umbrellas more, in different locations, and the final scene is where, if I remember right, one comes into his window. And he is -- no more.
(Because of that, even though it does follow his point of view, the story is probably written in the third person.)
Even though it is about an inimical life form that looks like large umbrellas, therefore aliens, the story (to my recollection) is not set on another human-colonized planet, or in the future, or in a different universe. Nothing high-tech is in it.
It seems to be rural, pastoral Earth. With nice country inns.
My searches have found all kinds of things it isn't: umbrellas that people hold and operate, buildings and instruments like umbrellas, or magic umbrellas, or berserkers. Just a life form. A carnivorous or destructive life form.
After finding so many stories that I had lost for fifteen or twenty years (many of them on here!), this one continues to elude me.
No idea whether it is by a famous Grand Master-level author, or originally in English, or translated into English, or whether it is considered good writing. Just a weird old-fashioned "Man-eating Monster" type theme that won't go away.
It could easily be older than that. Possibly even classic or Golden Age.
The plot bits I remember are a man staying at a remote rural hotel, vacation lodging, a rustic lodge, maybe a boarding house. It may or may not be told in the first person, but the story does unfold as he doesn't know anything at first, and develops as he sees changes and learns more.
So, first person or not, it develops from his point of view.
He looks out the window of his room, which I recall as an upper story. He sees large, folded umbrellas on the country hillside. They may be the size of restaurant table umbrellas.
Later, he sees that they moved. Closer to the building, of course.
Apparently, no one else knows anything about them. It may even be that no one else believes him.
Other guests of the lodge eventually go missing. He sees the umbrellas more, in different locations, and the final scene is where, if I remember right, one comes into his window. And he is -- no more.
(Because of that, even though it does follow his point of view, the story is probably written in the third person.)
Even though it is about an inimical life form that looks like large umbrellas, therefore aliens, the story (to my recollection) is not set on another human-colonized planet, or in the future, or in a different universe. Nothing high-tech is in it.
It seems to be rural, pastoral Earth. With nice country inns.
My searches have found all kinds of things it isn't: umbrellas that people hold and operate, buildings and instruments like umbrellas, or magic umbrellas, or berserkers. Just a life form. A carnivorous or destructive life form.
After finding so many stories that I had lost for fifteen or twenty years (many of them on here!), this one continues to elude me.
No idea whether it is by a famous Grand Master-level author, or originally in English, or translated into English, or whether it is considered good writing. Just a weird old-fashioned "Man-eating Monster" type theme that won't go away.
